What’s Your Brand?How smart communications can bring long-term gains for your organization.

Christopher HornDirector of CommunicationsAmerican Forestschorn@americanforests.orgTwitter: @jhawk10is

Mark DeSantisCommunity Partnerships Program ManagerNational Park Foundationmdesantis@nationalparks.org

What’s Your Brand?

What is a brand?

What’s Your Brand?Branding and Community Forestry

● Breaking up “community forestry”

● Your brand is the first introduction to your organization

● A well-defined brand can differentiate you from other forestry organizations

What’s Your Brand?Why Your Brand Is an Asset

● Reinforce mission statement

● Tell your story

● Build Capacity and Friend-raising

What’s Your Brand?Reinforce Your Mission Statement

● Who are you?

○ NGO vs. For-Profit vs. Government Agency○ Environmental, Beautification, Education, Service, etc.

● Mission achievement

○ Evaluation of your work○ An opportunity to avoid “mission creep”

What’s Your Brand?

What you can do● Gather information from constituents

● Brand workshops

● Testing with staff and board of directors

● Consultant evaluations (budget

contingent)

What’s Your Brand?Tell Your Story

● Define your audience

● Develop your identity

● Explore communications channels

○ Digital○ Physical

What’s Your Brand?

What you can do● Gather information from constituents

● Use data/analytics to drive content

strategy

● Implement slight alterations at little to

no cost

● Brand consultation (budget contingent)

What’s Your Brand?Build Capacity and Friend-Raising

● Break through the noise and reach donors

○ Find your donors [both current and future]

● Create not just a brand - but a personality

○ Brand equity and asset value

● Effective and consistent communication

What’s Your Brand?

What you can do● Evaluate your donor base

● Review solicitations to reflect the “new” brand

● Determine most effective and appropriate communications channels for your organization and focus your energy there

What’s Your Brand?

Questions?

Thank you!